Overview

The pcsync and pcwatch utilities allow editing copies of JavaScript and other textual files of a PlayCanvas project locally on your own computer, in a text editor of your choice.

pcsync also allows pushing and pulling of binary files, such as images and models.

In addition, if your project has a file called pcignore.txt, PlayCanvas merge will not affect the files listed in it, and the operation of pcsync and pcwatch will be restricted only to those files.

pcsync is used to push or pull one or all files to or from PlayCanvas (overwriting existing files with the same name/path) and to compare one or all local files to their remote (PlayCanvas) versions.

pcwatch detects changes to local files and folders (edits, removals and creation) as they happen and applies them to PlayCanvas in real time.

If you do not need your local changes pushed to PlayCanvas "as you type", you do not have to use pcwatch. Running pcsync pushAll periodically can be sufficient.

Only the pcsync pull and pcsync pullAll commands can change local files. Other pcsync commands and pcwatch change only remote files. Thus your local directory holds the authoritative version of your textual files.

The only scenario we do not support is when developer A uses pcwatch, while developer B is editing files of the same PlayCanvas branch in the browser code editor. B's work will be overwritten by A, if they edit the same file. Either B should start using local files, or A should stop pcwatch and switch to the browser code editor.

The pcsync Utility

pcsync has the following commands:

  diffAll                     compare all local and remote files and folders
  diff <filePath>             show line-by-line diff of the remote and local files at filePath
  pullAll                     download all remote files, overwriting their local counterparts
  pushAll                     upload all local files, overwriting their remote counterparts
  pull <filePath>             download remote file, creating local folders if needed
  push <filePath>             upload local file, creating remote folders if needed
  rename <oldPath> <newPath>  rename remote file or folder, change its parent folder if needed
  rm <filePath>               remove remote file or folder
  parseIgnore                 list assets matched by pcignore.txt

A local directory designated as PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR corresponds to the root of the PlayCanvas file and folder asset hierarchy.

All file and folder paths passed to pcsync as arguments should be relative to this root and use forward slashes even on Windows, e.g.

pcsync rename dir1/file1.js file1.js

will move file1.js to the root asset directory.

pushAll and pullAll accept an optional -y or --yes flag to automatically answer "yes" to confirmation prompts.

The pcwatch Utility

pcwatch does not need any options.

Moving or renaming a file or a folder will appear to pcwatch as a remove + create. In such cases it may be better to stop pcwatch, perform the operation locally, apply it to PlayCanvas with pcsync rename, and start pcwatch again.

Adding New Files as Script Components

Assume file F was created locally and pushed to PlayCanvas with pcsync or pcwatch, and now you are adding F as a script component to an entity in PlayCanvas Editor.

Note that it will take a second or two for F to appear in the dropdown list, because F is parsed by the editor for the first time when that list is populated.

The pcignore.txt File

If your project has a file called pcignore.txt in the root folder, any file listed there will be the same before and after a PlayCanvas merge.

The operation of pcsync and pcwatch is restricted to the files listed in pcignore.txt, if pcignore.txt exists. This ensures that the set of files managed locally exactly matches the set ignored by PlayCanvas merge, which is appropriate for most workflows.

To make pcsync and pcwatch work with more files than listed in pcignore.txt, use the PLAYCANVAS_INCLUDE_REG config variable, which is a regular expression to test each file's path from the root of the asset hierarchy.

Before a PlayCanvas merge, make sure that the latest checkpoint of the destination branch is taken after pcignore.txt was added.

If you are using git for your textual files, you can perform a git merge before a PlayCanvas merge of the corresponding branches, push the result to the PlayCanvas destination branch, and then perform a PlayCanvas merge.

pcignore.txt Syntax

pcignore.txt consists of one or more lines, each of which is either a path (with the same syntax as .gitignore), or one of the following:

ignore_all_textual_files
ignore_all_js_files
ignore_all_files_with_extension <extension1,extension2,...>
ignore_regexp <regexp string>
source_branch_wins

ignore_all_textual_files is the most common choice.

source_branch_wins (included once anywhere) changes the PlayCanvas merge behavior: instead of keeping items matching pcignore.txt as is (in the destination branch), the merge result will now include the versions of the corresponding items (if present) from the source branch.

Multiple ignore_regexp lines can be provided. Any textual asset whose path from the root of the asset hierarchy matches an ignore_regexp expression will be ignored.

To check your pcignore.txt syntax, you can run pcsync parseIgnore. It will list all existing files that match your current pcignore.txt.

Use a space and not * or ? to match a space in a file or folder name in gitignore lines.

Using pcsync for Binary Files

Binary files include assets such as textures (JPG and PNG) and models (GLB).

push, pull (single file) and rm work with binary file arguments without any special options.

pushAll, pullAll and diffAll have two options that make them work with matching files only, including binary (without one of these options pcsync only works with textual files):

  -e, --ext <extensions>  handle files with provided extensions
  -r, --regexp <regexp>   handle files matching the provided regular expression

For instance:

pcsync diffAll -e jpeg,png
pcsync pushAll -r "\\.(png|jpeg)"

The regular expression tests each file's path from the root.

Installation

Requires Node.js >= 18. We recommend using nvm to manage Node versions.

Install globally from npm:

npm install -g playcanvas-sync

This makes the pcsync and pcwatch commands available system-wide.

To uninstall:

npm uninstall -g playcanvas-sync

Config Variables

Config variables can be set in a file called .pcconfig in your home directory, in pcconfig.json in your target directory (and your remote PlayCanvas branch), or provided as environment variables (which would have the highest precedence).

The home directory location is:

• Windows: C:\Users\<username>
• Mac/Linux: /Users/<username> or /home/<username>

Getting Your API Key

Get your PlayCanvas API key (token) from your PlayCanvas account page (playcanvas.com/<username>/account). See the User Manual for detailed instructions.

Getting Your Branch and Project IDs

From the Chrome Developer Tools console (on the PlayCanvas Editor page) run:

copy({
  PLAYCANVAS_BRANCH_ID: config.self.branch.id,
  PLAYCANVAS_PROJECT_ID: config.project.id
})

This will copy your branch and project id to the clipboard.

Alternatively, you can get your branch id from the Version Control Panel of the PlayCanvas Editor, and your project id from its home page url, e.g. for playcanvas.com/project/10/overview/test_proj the id is 10. See the User Manual for more details.

Sample Config File

Create a directory for the local versions of your PlayCanvas files, e.g. proj1. Add its full path to .pcconfig in your home directory, along with your API key and the branch/project IDs.

A sample .pcconfig should look like this:

{
  "PLAYCANVAS_BRANCH_ID": "abc",
  "PLAYCANVAS_PROJECT_ID": 10,
  "PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR": "/Users/zpaul/proj1",
  "PLAYCANVAS_API_KEY": "xyz",
  "PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG": "^\\.|~$",
  "PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG": "\\.",
  "PLAYCANVAS_CONVERT_TO_POW2": 0
}

All listed key-value pairs are necessary. You can split them between .pcconfig (in your home directory), pcconfig.json (in your project target directory), and environment variables.

PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR can only be set in .pcconfig or an environment variable. You can also set PLAYCANVAS_USE_CWD_AS_TARGET to 1 in .pcconfig to use your current working directory as your target.

For some workflows, it may be necessary to keep the pcconfig.json file at the top level in the target directory, but treat one of its subdirectories as the root of the local file hierarchy. In such cases PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_SUBDIR needs to be provided, e.g.

"PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_SUBDIR": "src"

Backslash characters should be written as \\ (escaped).

Files and Folders to Exclude

Many text editors and operating systems create local auxiliary files and directories that do not need to be automatically pushed to PlayCanvas.

PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG contain RegExp strings (note the escapes) that tell pcwatch which files and directories to ignore. In our sample .pcconfig, a bad file has a name that starts with a dot or ends with ~. A bad folder is one that has a dot anywhere in its path relative to PLAYCANVAS_TARGET_DIR. The expressions provided are sufficient in most cases, and you can simply copy them into your .pcconfig.

To determine which auxiliary files and folders your OS and text editor create, run pcwatch with config/environment variables PLAYCANVAS_DRY_RUN and PLAYCANVAS_VERBOSE set to 1, and create/edit some files.

pcwatch output will show all file system events as they happen, and which of them will be filtered out by your current PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG.

If in your case no bad files and folders exist, use a string like "matchNothing" as the value of PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and/or PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG.

Troubleshooting

Problems are often caused by setting config variables incorrectly. Execute your command with the config/environment variable PLAYCANVAS_VERBOSE set to 1 to print the current values of all config variables and other useful data.

Sample Workflows

Case 1: Single user per PlayCanvas branch, without git

• Run pcsync pullAll to download existing textual files from PlayCanvas
• Launch pcwatch
• Start editing/creating files locally in your own text editor

To merge changes from another PlayCanvas branch into your branch without git:

• Stop pcwatch
• Run pcsync diffAll, and, if necessary, pcsync push/pushAll to make sure the PlayCanvas version is up-to-date.
• Perform merge in PlayCanvas
• Use pcsync pullAll to download the merge result

Case 2: Single user per PlayCanvas branch, with git

• Create your own PlayCanvas branch of your team's project
• Create a git branch for your work, and make it your local target directory
• Create a pcignore.txt file, listing all files you intend to keep in git, create a PlayCanvas checkpoint that includes your pcignore.txt
• Launch pcwatch
• Start editing/creating files locally in your own text editor
• When necessary, merge in git the branch of another group member into your branch
• Use pcsync pushAll to update your remote branch after git merge
• Merge the same branches in PlayCanvas
• Use pcsync diffAll to verify that local and remote files are still in sync

Case 3: Multiple users working on the same PlayCanvas branch, with git

Most items from Case 1 apply, also:

• Periodically run pcsync diffAll. It is usually OK to see extra remote files (coming from other team members). If you notice that a remote file is different from your local file, consider a git merge to include your team member's changes into your git branch, resolve conflicts in git, if any, as usual.
• Avoid pcsync pull/pullAll. To get others' files/changes into your branch, use git merge instead to maintain an accurate git history of edits to each file (who added what).

Using TypeScript

TypeScript Bindings

You can build TypeScript Bindings from the PlayCanvas engine repo (branch stable) as mentioned in the instructions here:

npm run build:types

This will generate the file build/output/playcanvas.d.ts in your engine folder.

TypeScript Workflow

TypeScript source files are usually compiled into a single JavaScript file, which is then used in a PlayCanvas project.

This JavaScript file can be added to your pcignore.txt to prevent PlayCanvas merge from reporting conflicts in it.

If you are storing your TypeScript source files in git, there is no need to include them in your PlayCanvas project.

Setting up Visual Studio Code for local editing on Mac

Copy the file playcanvas.d.ts with TypeScript bindings for the PlayCanvas engine to a folder called typings in your target directory.

Create a jsconfig.json file in your target directory with the following content:

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "ES5",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "files": [
            "typings/playcanvas.d.ts"
        ]
    }
}

Your folder structure should look like this:

Add jsconfig.json and typings to PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG and PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG, e.g.

"PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FILE_REG": "^\\.|~$|jsconfig.json",
"PLAYCANVAS_BAD_FOLDER_REG": "^\\.|typings"

Now you are ready to start using pcsync and pcwatch to sync your PlayCanvas project and edit with VS Code goodness 🚀